I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird sings is the autobiography of Maya Angelou. She tells of the hardships she experienced in her youth, beginning with her parents' divorce when Angelou was only three years old. As a result of the divorce, Maya and her older brother are sent to live with their grandmother in a small, Arkansas town. Here, she experiences the horrors of racism and learns to hate herself for not being white. When she is eight, Maya goes to live with her mother in St. Louis. There, she is sexually abused by her mother's live-in boyfriend, and is emotionally scarred by the terrible experience. Finally, after Maya has become aware of racial prejudice and religious hypocrisy, she begins to find her voice. Maya's mother marries a man who proves to be a positive father figure, and the family moves to Los Angeles. Here, Maya spends her teenage years being defiant and getting herself into a lot of trouble. When she becomes pregnant in her senior year of high school, however, she gains the confidence to become a strong woman and a good mother to her child. Maya Angelou's autobiography is an honest and gripping story of her early life as a poor, black girl of the rural South in the 1920's. She is abandoned by her parents to be raised along with her brother by relatives, only to have her mother and father each drift back into her life later on. She details the hardships faced including racism, sexual molestation, poverty and ignorance. Her reunion with her mother in St Louis disrupts her young life with tragic results as she is molested by a family friend. Eventually she winds up in San Francisco and at one point runs away and lives on the street and in cars. She perserveres to complete high school and work toward a productive future." This is the autobiography of Maya Angelou's harsh and unpleasant childhood. She and her brother were shuttled from relatives in the dirt poor rural south to then live for a time in St. Louis with their pretty but irresponsible mother....

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...1. The memoir opens with a provocative refrain: What you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay…” What do you think this passage says about Ritie’s sense of herself? How does she feel about her place in the world? How does she keep her identity intact?
In the novel, “IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings” by Maya Angelou it basically explains her life growing up. The main character was Maya herself whom wrote the book and she talks about the struggle and pain she had to go through as a child. She explains to us that she is really insecure about her looks and wishes that she was white. The story opens with a provocative refrain: “What you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay …”. This passage right off the top told me that Maya’s sense of herself was that was wasn’t welcome anywhere because she automatically assumed that they looked at her in disgust and that they didn’t want her there which is why she plainly said she wasn’t there to stay. The way that she feels about her place in the world is extremely sad because she believes she should be a blonde white girl with blue eyes. I feel as though that if she can’t accept herself for who she is then no one else will either. The story gives us background information that her grandmother was very loving to her but she constantly sees how bad people she knows are being treated....

...The world today with its racism, corruption, and discrimination, is lucky to have such an inspirational author as Maya Angelou. In her works of poetry, drama and memoir, she describes the imperfections and perversions of humanity, men, women, black, and white with an unrelenting and sometimes jarring candor. In her first autobiography, "IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings", she describes her own experiences as a Black African American girl growing up in the deep south of Stamps, Arkansas.
James Baldwin illustrates the motivation he got from reading this book as follows:
"Black, bitter and beautiful, she speaks of our survival... This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new error in the minds and hearts of all black men and women...IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but Iknow that not since the days of my childhood when the people in books were more real than the people one saw everyday, had I found myself so moved...Her portrait is a biblical study of life in the midst of death."
Maya Angelou went through many impediments throughout her life including the separation of...

...In IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings, Angelou presents a society of deep rooted racism where insecurity thrives within a black community. Throughout the novel, it is evident that the black residents of segregated Stamps all deal with social or even physical insecurity which is most notably seen in the character of Maya. It is through their obvious discomfort around whites, their intense need to conceal their weaknesses and difficulty in maintaining relationships that their insecurities are most prevalent. This is seen most significantly in the characters of Maya and Uncle Willie.
Maya is intensely critical of her physical appearance from the beginning of the novel. By describing herself as “a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair and broad feet.” Maya describes the stereotypical physical features of a black individual which she views as negative attributes. Maya views being black as something almost sinful and that all physical features associated are to be loathed. Maya’s self-deprecating nature stems from her almost extreme fear of whites who she believes she her as a “dumb animal.” Angelou’s use of the word “animal” is significant because it highlight’s Maya’s belief that being black is inhumane and beyond contempt. Additionally, it also explains why Maya is incredibly insecure and self-loathing because she believes that she will always be inferior to whites....

.... Race Relations
The reasons listed by the censors for banning IKnowWhy the Cage BirdSings do not explain the widespread controversy around the novel. There is reason to believe that the question of the novel is in its poignant portrayal of race relations. This explains why the novel has been most controversial in the South, where racial tension is historically worst, and where the novel is partially set. Therefore, understanding the blatant and subtle effects of racism on the young Marguerite help explain the censorship controversy, and the person she became.
One of the earliest examples of race relations in the book symbolizes the strict dichotomy of opportunity for black and white children. On the second page, Marguerite explains how she wished that she would wake up in a white world, with blond hair, blue eyes, and she would shudder from the nightmare of being black. Thus, from the beginning of the book, race relations were one of the major themes.
Maya Angelou also shows the effect of oppression on the black people, and that impact on her as a child. One early example occurred when the po' white trash children confronted Mama in front of the store. They were represented as clownish, dirty, and rather silly. On the other hand, Mama simply stood like a rock and sang the Gospel. Her beauty of soul versus their disgusting antics creates a powerful scene about the nature of the...

...she is careful to let the readers know of humorous occurrences, she balances this throughout with reminders of how entrenched racism de-humanizes and terrifies those who are regarded as being at the bottom of the hierarchy.
She describes the complete segregation of the town and how African-Americans have been taught to dread the ‘whitefolks’ and is trained by Momma to never be insolent (because of the fear of retribution). IKnowWhy a CagedBirdSings stands as a testament to the bravery of those who have been oppressed but not silenced by this deeply racist society. As the eponymous cagedbird, that is taught the necessity of living a restricted life through fear, Angelou’s work shows a refusal to be silenced.
Sense of Belonging
In this memoir, Angelou refers vividly to instances when she feels as though she has been on the outside looking in and it is not until she lives in San Francisco and later lives as a homeless person that she finds acceptance. Before these times, it is as though she is an exile in her family and neighborhood. In the Prologue, she relates to the truth in the poem, that she has not come to stay and experiences this same emotion in St Louis when she first returns to Mother.
In San Francisco, she thrives in the newly burgeoning African-American community and as one of many underage homeless persons in the disused car lot...

...1
Nadia Lee
English 2
Mr. List
19 January 2013
IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings
By: Maya Angelou
1. Before I chose this poem, I was thinking about choosing a couple of other ones when I finally realized that this poem caught my eye the most. IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings helped me realize the benefits and consequences from both sides in life. I found this poem in Google under the category that said “poems that talk about life”. If you read this poem and take it literally, than it will mean nothing, but if you take it to the next level by comparing it to life, than it will mean so much more.
2. The author of this poem is Maya Angelou who is a famous well known poet throughout the world. Angelou is an African American who went through so much pain during her youth years. Angelou was just a child when African Americans were being discriminated by whites. When she was eight years old, her mother’s boyfriend, Freeman, raped and sexually abused Angelou. She then told her brother who later took Freeman to court finding him guilty. After he was released from jail, one of Angelou’s uncles murdered Freeman later turning Angelou into a mute. Angelou stayed mute for five years, but within those years was when she developed a passion for books and...

...Influence Marguerite Johnson had a harsh childhood growing up in the South during the days of cotton picking and slavery. All of the adversity she encountered when she was young inspired her to write the book IKnowWhy the CagedBirdSings. In it, she depicts what life was like growing up in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas, and illustrates the daily hardships that were roadblocks throughout her life. Many people help her overcome these obstructions in her young life, but it was the people closest to her who enable her to rise above the adversity she faced. Although a vast number of people came into and out of her life, only a few made a lasting impression on her. Bailey, Mrs. Flowers, and Momma were the biggest role models throughout her childhood and also had the most positive influences on her.
Bailey had a very unique relationship with Maya; they grew up together and shared everything. They were inseparable and experienced everything side by side. Whenever they got into trouble, they experienced it together and, if they didn't do it together, they were punished equally anyway. When Maya said "by the way,"� Momma not only whipped Maya for cursing, but she whipped Bailey and their friend Junior as well without a reason. She whipped all three of them so they all would know what would happen to them if they cursed. In Momma's eyes Bailey and Maya were to be treated equally...

...﻿IKnowWhy The CagedBirdSings
Can you imagine living the life of a coming-of-age, southern black girl during the years of 1930 - 1950? Maya Angelou shares her childhood, being both joyous and painful, in her autobiographical novel, IKnowWhy The CagedBirdSings and how she has confronted challenges in her life such as racism and segregation, sexism, violence, loneliness, and more. She has written it in the first person, as most traditional autobiographies, and provides a summary of her life in chronological order during the years covered. All the stories Maya has shared as a child has had a great impact on her adult life.
Maya Angelou, born in 1928, with her older brother, born 1 year before, was with their parents in St. Louis, Missouri until their parents divorced. They were then sent off to live with their grandmother, later called Momma, and Uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas. Both Bailey and Maya struggle with the abandonment of their parents. In addition, Maya suffers with self-esteem issues, feeling as not being measured up to other black children, and most certainly not white children. Racism is a huge difficulty in the south, and young Maya is aware of all the lynchings that come about.
At the age of 8, Maya’s father, which she has no recollection of, takes her and her brother away...